New Japan Pro Wrestling's second biggest event of the year, Dominion, will be taking place on Sunday, June 15 at Osaka-jo Hall, with all of the company's biggest stars scheduled to appear. However, something else that will happening at the event will be the announcement of who will take part in this year's G1 Climax tournament. The G1 is widely regarded as the most prestigious tournament in professional wrestling, with the winner of the round robin competition guaranteeing themselves a shot at the IWGP World Heavyweight Championship at Wrestle Kingdom in the Tokyo Dome the following January.
It won't just be stars from NJPW taking part as Dave Meltzer of the Wrestling Observer Newsletter has seemingly confirmed the rumor that AEW's Konosuke Takeshita will be taking part in the tournament for the second year in a row. Takeshita made his G1 debut in 2024, reaching the quarter-final stage after finishing second his block, but was ultimately eliminated by Yota Tsuji, who ended up making it to the final but was defeated by the eventual winner, Zack Sabre Jr..
The rumor of Takeshita returning for the tournament spread on social media after a leaked poster for the 35th G1 Climax tournament was spotted, with Takeshita being placed front and center. The poster also displayed Hiroshi Tanahashi as the biggest star, implying that he will take part in his final G1 after missing last year's tournament due to NJPW's concerns about his age. The G1 will run from July 18 through to August 17, with Meltzer stating that Takeshita will be away from AEW TV during that time, meaning that he will be able to appear at both All In Texas and Forbidden Door on July 12 and August 24, but will miss the build up for the latter of those events.
Takeshita will be in action at Dominion this Sunday, defending the NEVER Openweight Championship against Boltin Oleg, and will likely make more appearances for NJPW throughout the year given that he signed a contract with the company at the start of 2025.
